Michel Roux Jr book
There is no doubt at all that the Roux brothers, Albert and Michel made an incredible impact on the world of modern cuisine both in the home and of course restaurants in the UK. With Michelin stars adorning their restaurants, these two chefs changed the concept of food forever in England. They opened the doors to a whole new way of looking at food. The wonderful things they created including the dishes they served up in their restaurants as well as their superb cookery books, have inspired chefs and amateur cooks for decades, and I am one of them.
Many years ago I was invited to a restaurant that had just opened a few weeks previously in Oxfordshire. It was called Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons and I was invited by a French friend who had a delightful French restaurant in London. I was thrilled by the invitation and very excited about going to this lovely countryside manor house that people were talking about.
Raymond Blanc
Needless to say the food was exquisite and the setting gorgeous. The lovely Frenchman who had set it up was Raymond Blanc and today this wonderful restaurant has 2 Michelin stars and received a 9 out of 10 score in the Good Food Guide. This gorgeous man who cooks such wonderful food is a self-taught chef which I remember at the time gave me the feeling that there was hope for me as a cook too.
One of the things I love most about Raymond Blanc is that he opened a chain of Boulangeries and Pâtisseries which whenever I can I have to visit in order to buy the superb French cakes that are sold in them. His success is a wonderful story that warms the cockles of your heart. For someone who could not speak a word of the language when he first arrived, you do have to take your hat off to him now.
Alain Ducasse book
Another all time great French chef is Alain Ducasse. He has countless Michelin stars under his belt and runs the restaurant in The Dorchester Hotel London. This amazing chef and his style of Provençale cooking made such a wonderful mark on modern French cuisine. Ducasse has run restaurants in Monte Carlo, Juan-Les-Pins and so many more including of course The Dorchester Hotel, London as well as restaurants in the United States too.
This wonderful French chef was the first to have not one but three restaurants carrying 3 Michelin stars in three different cities and is the only chef to have 19 Michelin stars to his name during his career.
If like me you love French food, then following these masters of the kitchen is a great hobby and I am forever checking just what new recipes they have created. This is the wonderful part about the Internet because you can do this at the click of a few buttons and then rush to the shops to get all the ingredients so that you can cook them that very same evening.